PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Brady missing from practice

Tuesday

Oct 10, 2017 at 8:06 PMOct 10, 2017 at 8:09 PM

In a season that's seen the 40-year-old quarterback absorb a high amount of hits, Tom Brady reportedly was given the day off from practice to have an MRI on his left shoulder. Brady is expected to play against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

FOXBORO – Tom Brady shrugged off the number of hits he took in last Thursday night’s 19-14 win at Tampa Bay.

“Just football,” the quarterback said after the game. “I’ll be there next Sunday.”

Brady may very well be there when the Patriots play the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, but he wasn’t on hand for the media access portion of practice on Tuesday.

NBC Sports Boston reported that Brady missed practice to have an MRI on his left shoulder that revealed an AC joint sprain.

Brady walked through the locker room but did not speak during the media’s interview period late in the day. As usual, Brady is scheduled to talk on Wednesday.

According to NBC Sports Boston, Brady originally suffered the injury in the Patriots’ 33-30 loss to Carolina on Oct. 1, then aggravated it at Tampa Bay last Thursday night.

The injury isn’t expected to cause Brady to miss practice time this week or the game against the Jets on Sunday.

Since the first practice and injury report of the week isn’t required to be submitted by the team to the NFL until 4 p.m. Wednesday, there was no word from the Patriots regarding Brady’s absence.

Continuing a season-long trend, the 40-year-old Brady was sacked three times and hit on a half-dozen occasions by the Buccaneers. Those numbers pushed the counts to 32 and 16, respectively, through five games.

Given the fact that the Patriots released quarterback Taylor Heinicke while reshuffling their practice squad on Monday, it seems the team wasn’t all that concerned with Brady’s health to begin with.

With Brady missing and Heinicke banished, backup Jimmy Garoppolo was the lone quarterback on the practice field during the media’s access on Tuesday.

In addition to releasing Heinicke, the Patriots parted ways with offensive lineman Jason King on Monday. Those two moves created spots on the practice squad for defensive back Alex Carter and offensive lineman Cole Toner.

Along with Brady, cornerback Eric Rowe, who missed the game at Tampa with the groin injury he aggravated in the third quarter against Carolina, was missing from Tuesday’s practice.

Jettisoned: Veteran linebacker David Harris will get to introduce himself to his old team as a member of the Patriots when they play at MetLife on Sunday.

Or will he?

The 33-year-old Harris, who spent the first 10 years of his career in New York, has been on the field for just seven plays in four games (he was a healthy scratch for one) since the Patriots signed him as a free agent following his offseason release from the Jets.

“David’s done everything we’ve asked him to do,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said prior to the team’s practice on Tuesday. “He’s worked hard, been a great teammate. I couldn’t have asked for him to have any better attitude, any more cooperation than we’ve had from him. It’s been great.”

But there’s no getting past the fact that “everything” the Patriots have asked him to do has seldom included taking the field as he has lagged behind Dont’a Hightower, Kyle Van Noy, Elandon Roberts and even Marquis Flowers on the team’s depth chart at linebacker.

With Shea McClellin on injured reserve, one has to wonder if Harris has any kind of future with the team should McClellin reach the point where he’s healthy enough to be active later this season.

“We’ll keep making the best decisions we feel like we make every week for the team to help us win,” said Belichick. “So all the players that are here potentially have a role in that based on every game, game-planning situation and so forth. We’ll try to do what we feel like is best for the team like we always do.”

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